On 06/20/2018 06:46 PM, Matthew R. Trower wrote:
As for dtudc*, why? Who needs it?
If you really want it, there is no reason it could not just be
maintained outside of CDE as a separate project -- just requiring a
X11/Motif/CDE dev environment to build.
Is there some strong reason we need to kill it? I understand why there
might not be priority for others to fix it, but if I were willing to
repair it, can it stay? I don't know anything about this component
personally, but I'd like to see the traditional CDE toolkit and
application base stay intact where at all possible.
Yes. It is pure evil. It cannot be allowed to exist.
Ok, the reason I killed it is because:
1. I had never heard of it before, it was never in any version CDE I
ever maintained (starting around 1997 or so).
2. It generates tons of compiler and coverity warnings. It seems to
actually duplicate some X11 headers (but renames them) for some evil
reason. Ok, I like to use the term 'evil' when looking at that code,
because it just sucks.
3. It does not serve any useful purpose that I can discern. I have a
feeling that this was some development tool, created in a hurry within
HP, IBM, whatever and it was just slapped in at the last moment without
any review.
If someone (you) wants to revive it, then please:
4. grab it from on older commit before it was removed
5. work on it in your own personal repository
6. Once it is in shape - cleaned up, builds, runs, does not spit out
tons of compiler warnings, etc, then submit a PR/patch re-introducing
it, and we can review.
Separate maintainership is one possiblity, but I have reservations
regarding splitting up the CDE codebase...
TBH, I'd like to get rid of dtmail as well, unless someone wants to
drag it into the 21st century.
Okay, definitely I want dtmail to stay. Yes, it needs some help.
Completing the IMAP support would go a long ways. It's on my list of
items to attend to; I can try to bump it up in priority.
Well, my point is that dtmail isn't really safe to use on the Internet.
I'm only half-way joking when I say I want to kill it. But dtmail has
been around since the beginning of CDE, so I won't kill it - I will
advise not using though in it's current state.
I had briefly talked to one of the original developers of it (he emailed
me out of the blue one day), and he told me he had introduced a lot of
things like SSL support and the like that for some reason never made it
into the TOG code base.
He is retired now, and mentioned he might take up trying to fix it up
again, but that was 2-3 years ago and I haven't heard a peep from him
since. I don't blame him really :)
Besides, there are far better font editors out there, if that's your thing.
Some people would undoubtedly argue that there are far better (more
capable, modern, etc) desktop environemnts out there. Obviously, some
of us still care about this one, undoubtedly for a variety of reasons.
So I guess this is a reasonable time to ask, what is your vision for the
CDE project? Do you want to maintain this legacy product as-is, keeping
it alive? Do you want to modernize it somehow? Do you want it mainly
to serve the purposes of the developer base here, and people who don't
want to let go of their old familiar environment? Do you want to stage
a coup and overthrow Gnome/KDE/Unity? =)
I know those are broad questions, I'm just wondering what you're
thinking in general; if there's a master plan, or what. This type of
question is important, I think, when considering things like platform
support, and which programs we want to maintain.
In short, I want CDE to go down in history as the desktop environment
that exposed the Universe to the spectacle of its own destruction!!
BWAHAHHAHAHAHAH!
Ok, with some seriousness - I want it to be reliable and useful. I want
it to work on modern systems, and using modern methods, libraries and
the like, while preserving that which makes CDE, well, CDE.
This includes UTF8 support, a more modern build system, and conforming
to modern standards (freedesktop,org, Xrandr, etc) as much as we can
accommodate.
Of course this also depends heavily on Motif. I want it to be safe -
ie: not introduce security issues. I want it to not make maintaining it
a painful ugly experience. I want a basket of puppies too.
dtudc* doesn't contribute anything IMO to that. But hey, if you want to
fix it up and re-introduce it as described above, knock yourself out.
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Jon Trulson
"Fire all weapons and open a hailing frequency for my victory yodle."
- Zapp Brannigan
